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One of the stories we keep reporting (because it keeps being true) is that anime and manga are continuing to grow, both in their pop culture footprint and in the amount of money they bring into Japan. Now the Japanese government is aiming to help push manga in overseas markets by creating a unified distribution service for manga companies using AI to translate and potentially cutting companies like Crunchyroll out of the loop.

The plans come as overseas sales of Japanese publications, which manga continues to make up a significant portion of, totalled around ¥320 billion ($2.07 billion) in 2022. However, only around 8% of that money made its way to Japanese publishing companies and manga artists. The majority was going to overseas companies that localized and distributed the manga. 

The solution, according to the Japanese government, is to create a consortium of Japanese publishers, working together with the government to create a single distribution platform that overseas customers can subscribe to. This would allow more money to remain in Japan and go directly to Japanese companies, and give customers access to more manga with fewer subscription fees. It will also potentially cut down on manga piracy, something that overseas fans often turn to out of habit.

There are a few caveats, however. It isn’t clear if companies like Shueisha, a Japanese company that already has its own manga distribution service, or Crunchyroll, an American company that has just relaunched its own manga distribution service, would be impacted. The Shonen Jump app is still the gold standard for digital comic distribution. It also isn’t clear how this will affect companies like Yen Press, which predominantly publishes physical media.

The other thing that could be a sticking point is the use of AI in the localization process. As we’ve discovered by talking to manga translators, AI localization is simply not where fans or publishers need it to be for commercial use. Maybe eventually, but certainly not at the moment. There are too many nuances in the Japanese language for a machine to translate it effectively, especially in a visual medium like manga.

There is no expected timeline for the Japanese government’s plans to create a unified manga distribution service for overseas fans. The plan is ambitious, which may mean that it takes several years to come together, so don’t rush to cancel your Shonen Jump subscription just yet.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

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